Shabbat B'shallach
Friday, 10 February 2006
Shabbat B'shallach
B’shallach brings us to one of the central stories in the journey of the Israelites – the crossing of the Sea of Reeds. Here we have the culmination of the Pesach journey, the ending of the relationship between the Israelites and the Egyptians. After four hundred years of slavery and a messy revolt full of plagues and sadness, the Israelites are almost free of their taskmasters.
This is not just a story of ending and closure – it is a story of beginning. Truly, this is a story of transition, of liminality. The Israelites are now caught between Egypt and wilderness, between the multiple gods of the Egyptians and the single, unity of Yahweh. The story itself begins in an uncertain place – the Israelite camp is at the edge of the wilderness (Ex 13:20), on the wrong side of a seemingly impenetrable sea. In fact, the Hebrew name of the Sea of Reeds – Yam Suf – lends itself further to this idea of the edge. There is a theory that Yam Suf was originally Yam Sof, which means The Sea of the End; this is thought to be an allusion to a mythical sea, a body of water leading to the end of the earth. Truly this must be how the Israelites felt, trapped between the advancing Egyptian army and the expanse of water before them; they had come to the edge of the earth and only a miracle could save them.
The water itself also contains within it allusions to near eastern mythology. There is a dual imagery wrapped up within them – that of chaos and danger and at the same time rebirth and creation. Throughout the bible, waters are often a symbol of chaos and danger from the very beginning, on the first day of the creation story. In the beginning there was tohu vavohu – chaos and void – and the tahom – the waters of the deep. Before God tames them they are dark, murky and frenzied, but it is through them that the birth of existence happens.
This duality is also present in the text of B’shallach. The Israelites are faced with these waters, described in terms that conjure up images of the original, murky, primeval waters and by crossing through them are reborn into a new people. This idea is carried through after the event in the Song of the Sea; within the text of this victory song is the repetition of the word tahomot – waters of the deep – and other water imagery. It speaks of the depths covering, the floods coming. This recalls both the original creation story and the story of Noah, itself a rebirth – the sins of humanity were washed away by the waters of the floods. Just as though it were a large mikveh, the water cleanses the Israelites, making them pure.
In becoming reborn as Israelites, the people go through a fundamental change. For four hundred years, the Egyptians have been their lords and masters. The Hebrew slaves were exposed to the Egyptian gods and way of life and the Egyptians subjugated the Hebrew identity under the slave identity. The Hebrews have always been weak in the fact of Egyptian strength. But all that changes with the crossing of the sea. Lest the Israelites miss this change in the midst of the miracle, God through Moses spells it out for them. “How you see the Egyptians today,” he says to them, “you will never see them again.” (Ex 14:13) There are two layers to this. On the one hand, the Israelites will never see the Egyptians again as their oppressors, chasing after them in an organized army. Once across the sea, the Israelites will leave the Egyptians behind, never to encounter them en masse again. But on the other hand, there is a deeper, more subtle meaning. For hundreds of years they had been powerful oppressors, lords and masters over every aspect of the lives of the Hebrews. This has left the Hebrews with an impression of the Egyptians as larger than life, great and mighty. By mastering the Egyptians and drowning them in the sea, God raises Godsself above the Egyptians in the estimation of the Hebrews. The Hebrews are therefore left with a weakened, subdued impression of the Egyptians, seeing them as significantly lesser than God (at least for a while).
The sea crossing and the rebirth of the Israelites is essential to the mythology of the Israelites. From this moment onwards, God becomes more than just the God of the ancestors; God is now the one who brought the ancestors out of the land of Egypt. God has done something for the Israelites, has changed their lives and their fate. This is God’s great performance piece, where the Hebrews become Yahweh-ists.
